Sales and Operations Planning Manager in Farnborough

Are you ready to be part of the future? At QinetiQ, we’re not just imagining tomorrow we are creating it. From cutting‑edge defence technology to ground‑breaking innovations our mission is to empower and protect lives. Join us as a Sales and Operations Planning Manager at our Farnborough site, where you will have the opportunity to work with cutting‑edge technology in partnership with some of the most brilliant minds.

The Role

As the Sales and Operations Planning Manager, you will hold full accountability for S&OP across the Group, working in collaboration with finance and strategy teams to inspire collaboration, trust and a one QinetiQ mindset to driving business performance across the organisation. Day‑to‑day, you will lead the business in effective supply planning to ensure projects have the right people at the right time.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Responsible for ensuring the process achieves an agreement of the operational plan, and that the operational and financial plan is coherent and based on the same assumptions.
• Responsible for driving financial and delivery performance of the operational plan through effective demand and supply management, ensuring our targets and strategy is achieved.
• To ensure the business understands and manages the risks and decisions in the operational plan that drives performance.
• Responsible for monitoring, reporting and communicating the performance of the operational plan, and work with the Sectors to understand the performance and support them to drive improvement actions.
• Accountable for the baseline of the operational plan and manage changes against the baseline always ensuring coherence with the strategy and financial plan.
• Responsible for the S&OP process, systems and tools, to drive its effectiveness at delivering the required business outcomes and to drive continuous improvement from lessons learned.

Essential experience of the Sales and Operations Planning Manager:

• Extensive experience in leading Sales and Operations Planning across a large matrix organisation.
• Extensive experience at operating with a wide range of external and internal stakeholders including all depths up to director level.
• Strong leadership capabilities to effectively build and inspire high‑performing teams with a focus on continuous improvement and collaboration.
• Excellent abilities to collaborate with a network of geographically dispersed stakeholders.
• Strong management skills to drive successful delivery against agreed plans and to challenge behaviours and accepted working practices at all levels.
• Demonstrate high‑levels of negotiating and influencing skills with the ability to build strong relationships quickly at all levels and across all disciplines.

Essential qualifications for the Sales and Operations Planning Manager:

• Degree level academic qualification in a subject requiring strong analytical, conceptual and organisational skills.

This role is 37 hours per week based at Farnborough. Hybrid working patterns are available. At our Farnborough site exciting work takes place at our state‑of‑the‑art facility, with high‑energy laser technologies, our 5m pressurised wind tunnel which has a simulation capability that is unique in the UK and our large research and development projects is a real hub of creativity, research and innovation.

Why Join QinetiQ?

As we continue to grow into new markets around the world, there’s never been a more exciting time to join QinetiQ. The formula for success is our appetite for innovation and having the courage to take on a wide variety of complex challenges. As a QinetiQ employee, you’ll experience a unique working environment where teams from different backgrounds, disciplines and experiences enjoy collaborating widely and openly as we undertake this exciting and rewarding journey.

Through effective teamwork, and pulling together, you’ll get to experience what happens when we all share different perspectives, blend disciplines, and link technologies; constantly discovering new ways of solving complex problems in a diverse and inclusive environment where you can be authentic, feel valued and realise your full potential.

Our Benefits

• Matched contribution pension scheme, with life assurance.
• Generous holiday allowance, with the option to purchase additional days.
• Options to join Health Cash Plan, Private Medical Insurance and Dental Insurance.
• Employee discount portal: Personal Accident Insurance, Travel Insurance, Restaurants, Cinema Tickets and much more.
• We are proud to support the Armed Forces community by honouring the Armed Forces Covenant and maintaining our Gold Award standard in the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme.
• Volunteering Opportunities - helping charities and local community.

Our Recruitment Process

We want to make sure that our recruitment process is as inclusive as possible and we aspire to bring out the best in our candidates by creating an environment where everyone feels valued, heard and supported. If you have a disability or health condition that may affect your performance in certain assessment types, please speak to your Recruiter about potential reasonable adjustments.

Many roles in QinetiQ are subject to national security vetting being completed, applicants who already hold the appropriate level of vetting may be able to transfer it upon appointment. A number of roles are also subject to additional restrictions, which means factors such as nationality or previous nationalities may affect the roles that you can be employed in. Please note that all applicants for this role must be eligible for SC clearance, as a minimum.